Take a look below for our list of 10 of the most beautiful man-made structures.
1. Canton Tower
The Canton Tower, formally Guangzhou TV Astronomical and Sightseeing Tower, is a 604-meter-tall multipurpose observation tower in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou. The tower was topped out in 2009 and it became operational on 29 September 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games.
2. Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
3. Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a 2,430-meter (7,970 ft) mountain ridge. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometers (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco. The Urubamba River flows past it, cutting through the Cordillera and creating a canyon with a tropical mountain climate.
4. Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a temple complex in northwest Cambodia. A national symbol and sacred site of Cambodian Buddhism, the complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a significant tourist destination.
5. Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe.
6. Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States.
7. Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee.
8. Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.
9. Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
10. Lotus Temple
The Lotus Temple, located in Delhi, India, is a Baháʼí House of Worship that was dedicated in December 1986. Notable for its flowerlike shape, it has become a prominent attraction in the city. Like all Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all, regardless of religion or any other qualification. According to Shoghi Effendi, a Bahá’í temple is a “silent teacher” of the Bahá’í faith.
The building is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad “petals” arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, with nine doors opening onto a central hall with a height of slightly over 34 meters and a capacity of 1,300 people. The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards and has been featured in many newspaper and magazine articles.
